About Neuma:

Product Info:

ALM Expo and Ottawa, Canada - September 15, 2005 - In a move aimed directly at improving developer
usability, Neuma Technology today declared war on configuration
specifications used to specify a context-specific view of a source
tree.

In first generation CM tools, a user who wanted to look
at source code had to specify that they wanted the latest source code
or that they wanted a specific version, either by pointing to the
version or specifying the revision number for that version. In
second generation CM tools, CM managers and users can define a set of
rules that tell the CM tool how to determine the version. This is
known as a Configuration Specification.

But these rules can be quite complex: use the release 3
branch, but if there is none, then use the release 2 branch and if
there is none then the release 1 branch; but if there’s a
branch labeled “for me” use that one instead; override by
any versions with an emergency label on them. They even become more
complex if you need to sometimes pick the most recent version (e.g.
for checkout) and otherwise deal with the latest tested version.

In response to recent posts that configuration view
specifications are too complex, Joe Farah, President and CEO of Neuma
commented that “if it’s too complex to use, only a small
subset of your team will take advantage of it, and even then it will
be error prone. It’s got to be dead simple.”

CM+, with its third generation technology, eliminates
the need to create configuration specifications. Using a Product Road
Map, combined with Stream-based Change Management, CM+ can easily
compute which versions of the files to use. “You tell the
system one day that you’re working on product ‘ABC’
in development stream ‘rel3’. Your job is done, now it’s
the CM tool’s job”, explains Farah. “Maybe you
only want to look at fully tested code – just add that
promotion level/status to your request. Or maybe you want something
more specific, such as the build that you sent to a customer last
month or a specific baseline. Just specify the build or baseline and
you’re done.”

CM+ tracks the history of the product, not just of the
individual files. CM+ uses the product road map to inherit
automatically versions of files that have not been branched into the
current and perhaps even earlier development streams. This
eliminates the need both to branch prematurely and as a result to
maintain multiple branches. It also eliminates the need to apply
labels and to specify them in a configuration spec.

By default, CM+ will automatically include any changes
that you’re working on that will affect the current view, but
you can choose to exclude these. Or you can collaborate with your
peers on a complex feature by selecting their changes. CM+ will
remember your view until you change it, or you can save it away for
future reference.

CM+ clearly displays the user’s context view in
the status bar so that the user is aware of his context when (s)he
returns from lunch.